Pages

May 2, 2013

G28: Red Sox 3, Blue Jays 1

Ryan Dempster (6-4-1-3-4, 100) limited the Blue Jays to one run over six innings. I guess he was cheating, too.

Brett Lawrie gave the Jays a quick 1-0 lead when he led off the bottom of the first with a home run, but the lead was short-lived. Mike Napoli doubled to start the second and Will Middlebrooks walked with one out. (That was one of the seven walks issued by J.A Happ in only 3.2 innings.) Mike Carp's single scored Napoli and Stephen Drew's sacrifice fly scored Middlebrooks.

In the sixth, David Ross drew the second of his three walks, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Jacoby Ellsbury's opposite-field single.

Down by two, Toronto threatened in the seventh. Andrew Miller relieved Dempster and allowed a one-out single and a two-out walk. Junichi Tazawa came in and walked Lawrie, loading the bases. But he was able to strike out Adam Lind on a 96 mph fastball to end the inning.

Koji Uehara gave up a one-out single in the eighth, and struck out the next two hitters. In the ninth, it was Joel Hanrahan that came in for the save, not Andrew Bailey. Cody Rasmus singled to right field, but pinch-hitter Rajai Davis popped to second and Munenori Kawasaki grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Boston is now 20-8. Only two other teams in Red Sox history have had a better record after 28 games: 1946 (23-5) and 2002 (21-7). The 1994 squad was also 20-8.

It has been exceptionally bad this year. At the start of the game the other day, the count was 2-1 to LBJ after only two pitches. You can't even blame that on being tired. It was the first batter of the game!